Cingulotomy for refractory neural pain after spinal cord injury v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cingulotomy for refractory neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury (CRNP-SCI)
IRAS ID
294531
Contact name
Erlick Pereira
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George’s University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Neuropathic pain is a common long-term problem following a spinal cord injury. Studies show that chronic pain has a significant detrimental impact on an individual’s quality of life, ability to manage their daily activities and emotional well-being. Despite treatment by pain specialists, there remains a proportion of patients with refractory pain for whom there are no more options.
We propose to determine whether a procedure called cingulotomy, in essence the cutting of targeted brain pathways involved in regulating chronic pain, could help these most difficult to treat cases. This procedure is a form of stereotactic neurosurgery, which is able to target a specific region of interest in the brain with submillimetre accuracy. A thin wire is guided carefully to the target, the tip of which is then heated by radio-waves to cause a small, focal lesion (area of damage), and thus in effect cut the relevant overactive nerve pathways.
The safety and efficacy of this procedure has been established in a number of different causes of neuropathic pain, but there remains only limited evidence of its use in spinal cord injury. We aim to establish if this is safe and effective in this group of patients.REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/LO/0427
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion